December 1, 2015

What is the future of higher education? Online only? The virtual classroom? Gamified learning? Entirely maker spaces? Or will we all just be replaced by robots?

History tells us that new media add to but don't replace old media. Radio didn't replace music concerts. Television didn't replace movies. Streaming hasn't replaced television (in fact, you could argue that Netflix has become more like television). And podcasts haven't replaced radio. In every case the previous medium adapts and evolves, perhaps with more focus, but continues to persist.

Higher education is itself a combination of media. And we will continue to incorporate disruptive advances, whether that's online courses or other ways of broadening the student experience. For this month's ExCITeCast, we've focused on Drexel's Custom-Designed Major program. It's an opportunity for highly motivated students, often with multiple, wide ranging interests, to create a program of study most meaningful to themselves. It aligns well with the multidisciplinary culture of ExCITe and many of our co-ops and student participants have been custom designed majors. And our commitment to constructive disruption draws us to such approaches that question the mold of traditional program structures.

So what will be the future of higher education? No one knows for sure, but I think it will incorporate both traditional and new forms: in person, online, and highly experiential. I also believe the barriers between many disciplines are dissolving and that more and more future careers will rely upon having a rich mixture of expertise, spanning traditionally technical and creative disciplines. Two decades ago, there was no such thing as a web developer or a digital designer, jobs that are now in great demand. Because of that, we must continue to develop opportunities like the Custom-Designed major for highly enterprising students to express their interests in determining their own paths. And I firmly believe that enabling such student agency will play an increasingly prominent role in the future of higher education.

Youngmoo Kim, Director